There’s just something about this year’s Red Sox team that is driving me crazy, and I think Nick Carfardo is right: it isn’t enough that this year’s edition plays all around sloppy baseball night after night – sometimes successfully, sometimes not – it’s just that they’re colorless and their games all around snoozefests.

I mean, who on this team will you stop what you’re doing in order to watch? Dustin Pedroia? At times, perhaps. Jacoby Ellsbury (at least once he’s back from his rib injury) when he’s on base? Possibly. But who else? Granted, Jon Lester is a nice pitcher and Kevin Youkilis a nice player, and David “Big Papi” Ortiz’s well-documented struggles are interesting in a kind of macabre way, but I miss the days of Manny Ramirez and Big Papi. I miss the days of Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez. Big game players. Charismatic players. Look, J.D. Drew and Jeremy Hermida might be competent players, but there’s nothing about them making me want to watch as they take pitch after pitch after pitch.

I watch Terry Francona pace in the dugout and wonder how much he really wants to be there. His body language sure doesn’t show it

I listen to Jerry “Rem Dawg” Remy (NESN’s legendary color commentator) and wonder if he really wants to be there. He and play-by-play announcer Don “D.O.” Orsillo used to make even the slowest games entertaining to watch, but that seems a long time ago. Maybe Remy’s not feeling physically up to it, or maybe he’s just picking up on the lack of entertainment and enthusiasm for and around this team. Let’s face it, folks, the NESN broadcasts are boring.

The sad truth is, the Red Sox are a .500 ballclub in the middle of the A.L. East pack and not likely to get much better. They have a lot of competent veterans, but they look old, ploddy, and disinterested compared to the Yankees and the Rays. The team looks like a bunch of serviceable parts without any whole. Adrian Beltre? Mike Cameron? Marco Scutaro? Not much to get excited about there, fellas. In this day and age, the worst thing a team can be is boring to watch. Maybe that’s the way GM Theo Epstein likes it, but this is a team lacking in color and motivation. They may be talented, they may not be, only the season will tell. But they’re boring, and that makes it all the harder to live with, with such a long season ahead.